WLALW 2008 – Fighting for Animals Across the U.S.

World Laboratory Animal Liberation Week (WLALW) (April 20 – 26, 2008)
was the largest event in opposition to animal experimentation in recent
years! During this amazing week, protests, news conferences, and other
media events occurred in 43 cities spanning 26 states and Washington,
DC. International events took place in France, Israel, Ireland, South
Africa, and England.

During WLALW 2008, SAEN’s Michael Budkie led successful news
conferences in Dayton (OH), Detroit (MI), and Madison (WI). These media
events exposed abuses within Wright Patterson Air Force Base, University
of Wisconsin, Michigan State University, and University of Michigan.
SAEN news conferences and events in these states generated substantial
news coverage from outlets like WHIO-TV, Detroit Free Press,
Associated Press, and Wisconsin Radio Network, reaching hundreds of
thousands of people with the truth about animal experimentation.

SAEN’s Michael Budkie also gave an informative lecture on animal
experimentation at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. The
talk was well-attended and highly motivating.

Local activists across the U.S. coordinated many successful WLALW
events. In Mesa (AZ) local activists protested at a Covance laboratory
to expose the company’s history of animal abuse. Protests at Yale,
University of Connecticut, and Hartford Hospital were jointly
coordinated by PETA and Yale Affiliates Animal Rights Network. In
Boston, Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition held a rally against
animal testing in Copley Square and a protest against primate
experimentation at Harvard Square. Residents of Reno (NV) held a protest
at Charles River Laboratories. Win Animal Rights organized several anti-HLS
events in New York City. People for Animal Rights coordinated a protest
at the Bristol-Myers facility in Syracuse (NY).

Protect Our Earth’s Treasures (POET) coordinated several events in
opposition to animal experimentation at Ohio State University in
Columbus. In Defense of Animals’ Northwest Office organized three days
of protests at the Oregon Primate Research Center. Local activists also
held events to target the primate centers in New Orleans (LA), Seattle
(WA), and Davis (CA).

Reach Out for Animal Rights assembled activists for a protest at the
University of Pennsylvania, the nation’s leading violator of the Animal
Welfare Act. Local animal protectionists in Richmond (VA) came together
to oppose drug addiction experimentation at the Medical College of
Virginia. Houston activists coordinated an event to expose the animal
abuse of the Texas Heart Institute. PETA coordinated a public event at
the Department of Health & Human Services in Washington, DC.

SAEN would like to thank all of the wonderful local and national
organizations and activists that made World Laboratory Animal Liberation
Week 2008 such a smashing success and look forward to continued
cooperation as we work for a day when events like WLALW will no longer
be necessary.